Broken Glass [h.s.]

eighteen

I glance at Dove, she's untying her braid. I watch how she puts her dark locks into a bun with a sinking feeling in my chest. I feel like she thinks I'm way better than I truly am. I can just hope she won't drift away when she'll get tired of me. My chest tightens.

"Okay, time to go" Aaron says all of sudden standing up, and I do the same.

I offer my hand to Dove to help her to stand up. She raises an eyebrow, but she takes it nonetheless.

"I still like you better when your hair's down" I whisper into her ear as she passes me, enjoying the half shocked look she gives me at the unexpectedness of my words.

But she gathers her thoughts fast. "If my hair was down, it would also be in my eyes and I wouldn't manage to save your ass if someone decided it's a good day to send you straight to the other side."

I snicker at the reply. At least she isn't saying that I'd go straight to hell now, which is a considerable change. I give her a glance as she surpasses me, not waiting for me to say anything. To be honest, I don't even know if she actually likes me. I'm pretty sure that she doesn't hate me, but I'm even surer that her decision of coming with me has been taken thinking about her parents, to get them out of that place. Curiously, I don't really mind.

"Are you coming?" She asks me turning around, and I hasten my step, stealing a kiss from her right before surpassing her, aware of the fact that Aaron is looking in the opposite direction.

"You need to stop doing that" she whispers, but the little smile her lips inadvertently curve in tells me she doesn't mind that much.

"Are you done there?" Aaron asks, and my eyes widen as I wonder if he saw something.

"Don't know what you're referring to" I reply, making sure my voice is as steady as possible.

He huffs. "Stop bickering, Winters and you, Mr Styles. We're nearing the exit, silence would be better" he replies, and thankfully, he didn't. "I don't even know how you two managed not to murder each other."

He takes a turn, and we follow. I glance up to see a golden light right in front of us, and I stop in my tracks.

Dove, walking behind me, notices me, and nears me. "We're almost out... Styles." I glance at her at the mention of my last name, there's a smile on her face, she probably noticed it as well as it slipped out. Her eyes are of a weird, warmer shade of blue in the light of the sunset.

"We are" I whisper back in amazement, realising that our trip has finally come to an end.

We start walking again with more resolution, reaching Aaron, that stops a few feet from the entrance.

"Alright" he whispers to us, "Remember, there could be someone waiting for us. We have to be careful, is that okay?"

I nod, my hand already reaching to grab my gun as Dove slides her knife from her belt.

"Let's do this" she whispers, and soon enough, we step out.

The first thing I notice is green. Everything around us is bright green, the grass, the leaves of the trees, the bushes, and everything is bathing in the golden-reddish light of the setting sun. I've never seen that much green altogether, wild and natural, not even in the gardens of the Styles Mansion, and it's beautiful. I look at Dove, my same amazement is reflected onto her face, telling me she's never exited the city as well. But then again, a really few people have, and they usually don't come back to talk about it. I understand why, now.

Following Aaron, we step over the grass slowly, following the path on the map. I near Dove again, brushing the back of my hand against hers, making her look up at me.

"We made it" I whisper to her, and she smiles at me.

"Still can't believe it." A few strands of dark hair fall out of her bun as she looks up to the pink sky. "It was never this bright in the city" she says, and I nod in agreement.

After a few seconds of hesitation, I take her hand into mine, my heart skipping a beat when she doesn't push me away.

All of sudden a gunshot is fired through the air, and I turn my head up fast letting go of Dove's hand and taking off the safety of my gun, seeing Aaron do the same next to me.

We hear more gunshots and we kneel down, realising that we have nowhere to hide. We're in a clearing, and aside from the lonely trees every here and there, there's no place to take shelter behind.

Suddenly the gunshots stop, and about fifteen men come out from behind the tunnel entrance, their guns pointed at us, surrounding us. They don't wear cloaks, making their identity obvious.

We're dead, I think. There's no way we'll manage to make it out of here alive. Aaron slides closer to me. "The man in front of you has no bullets" he whispers, "You know what to do. Count to three."

I nudge Dove with my elbow, letting her know that I'm about to do something. She glances at me and says nothing, but I know she understood.

I count to three, and then I shoot the man, bending down fast as he falls on the ground, going over him to get out of the circle of men. I turn around and shoot the man in front of Dove and the one next to him as well, hitting them on first try, allowing her to jump over the man next to her and stab him. She takes his gun as he falls, turning around and shooting the one in front of her. Aaron fires two other gunshots, and two other men fall. Their circle breaks, and I shoot the first one I see pointing his gun at Dove, and the one I see trying to hide behind a tree. I recharge fast as Dove shoots the one coming towards me, and I look at her in the eyes, giving her a nod. I shoot into the scuffle, and another falls. With the corner of my eye I see someone else coming, but I don't really mind right away. I shoot another, watching him fall.

There's a few seconds of silence, and then, all of sudden, a single gunshot is fired. I turn in the direction it came from, just in time to meet Dove's ocean blue gaze before she falls to the ground.

Behind her there's a man, his brown eyes staring right at me with an amused look on his face, his gun still pointed in her direction. He says something, but I can't hear him over the shouts. Without thinking twice, I point my gun at him and empty my clip into him. He gives me a surprised glance before falling. My gun falls out of my hand onto the grass, my eyes still pointed in his direction.

"Styles!" I hear Aaron roar as he reaches me, "We must go!"

"We need to get her, she might still be alive!" I reply to him, but he shakes his head. "We need to!" I shout, but he tightens his grip around my arm.

"I'm sorry Mr Styles, but my job is to protect you, not her" he says before running away and pulling me with him, leaving the sound of gunshots being fired behind us.

I don't even know how we reach the house, but all of sudden I'm being pulled in, a heavy wooden door being shut behind me.

"There's blood on his clothes, what happened?" A voice says, and I look in the direction it comes from, meeting two familiar blue eyes.

"You" I hiss, and he gives me a smile.

"Good evening Harry, my name is Louis Tomlinson."